


Marks on my skin

by Thea_rainbow



Category: Sorted (Website) RPF
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Falling In Love, M/M, Marks, Multi, Students
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 09:16:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6148771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thea_rainbow/pseuds/Thea_rainbow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He carried one mark all his life, a circle of blue/lilac flowers beautifully arched across his chest, over his heart, where everyone’s mark lied. Soon other marks started to appear on his skin. A swirl of green along his tiny hand at the age of 4 after he felt a tiny flutter in his chest when eyes fell on a pretty girl, too far away to notice Ben all by himself in the park. It burned, along his hand into his arm and pierced the skin above his heart. Years after, he barely noticed the pain, always leading back to his own marking, reminding him that he once again, dedicated a patch of skin to someone unknown.<br/>A bird followed, perched on his hipbone, protective of its new owner after he kissed a boy in 5th grade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marks on my skin

**Author's Note:**

> There was this idea floating around on tumblr but i don't know where to find it again. sry <3

 

 

He carried one mark all his life, a circle of blue/lilac flowers beautifully arched across his chest, over his heart, where everyone’s mark lied. Soon other marks started to appear on his skin. A swirl of green along his tiny hand at the age of 4 after he felt a tiny flutter in his chest when eyes fell on a pretty girl, too far away to notice Ben all by himself in the park. It burned, along his hand into his arm and pierced the skin above his heart. Years after, he barely noticed the pain, always leading back to his own marking, reminding him that he once again, dedicated a patch of skin to someone unknown.

A bird followed, perched on his hipbone, protective of its new owner after he kissed a boy in 5th grade.

Months later, a flower blossomed on his upper arm, followed shortly by a brushstroke of gold along his knee. Once there were words written along his left side, saying ‘rain is raining but the sun will be shining again’. Sometimes it worried Ben how close he got to know these people he fell in love with just because his heart decided they were the right person to fall in love with.

Words were raw, animals and flowers too. Colors were common. Often appearing all along his body at times he didn’t even think he was capable of falling in love.

At 17, half of his skin was colored over, with people's marks who didn’t even know he existed, didn’t love or care for him. But every time he felt the burn, the soft pain along his skin, he knew it would be worth it.

His friends around him only had their own marks on their skin. Only Jamie and Lucy got their matching ones on their skin, proudly displayed on Lucy’s under arm and on Jamie's neck.

Ben often asked himself how people could go through life without falling in love so often, just seeing someone so amazing their heart squeezed and a new mark was collected.

But it seemed he was a special case. With colors swirling around his body, animals protecting his skin and flowers blooming on his pale skin, making it colorful.

When he met Dylan he didn’t know what to expect, but a black leafless tree on the underside of his foot wasn’t what he could ever imagine. Ben let him leave.

He grew further into his skin and more and more appeared, but there was still skin glowing pale and unmarked around his heart, around his own mark. At 23, he got his last one.

* * *

* * *

 

“Do you want to come over tonight? I’m going to make that apple pie you like so much.” Mike asked him over the table in the community room at their college, blond hair falling into his face, covering blue eyes. Ben looked up from his textbook, scratching at a blue feather on his shoulder, grimacing slightly. They had a free hour between Ben's chemistry lab and Mike's musical education lesson.

“What day is today?”

“Friday.” Mike answered, knowingly looking at Ben, amused by his friend for always forgetting what day it was.

“Aren’t you going to a party?” Ben pulled a bookmark from his pocket to place it in between the pages of his textbook, shutting it to pay full attention to his friend.

“I was going to, but now I feel like I rather want to suffocate on a Lego piece than pretend to enjoy big groups of people and bad alcohol and even worse music.“ Mike groaned, laying his head down onto the table, eyes still trained on Ben.

“That was quite detailed. Sure. I can come over. When?”

“Whenever. I will be home at-“ with a quick look into his calendar, for which he had to lift his head, he ended his sentence with “4pm. So whenever.”

“Okay, until whenever.” Ben joked, getting up to collect his things.

“Later, mate.” Mike said and collapsed back into his happy self until Ben remarked just as he walked by that he also had a course in 5 minutes.

* * *

 

“Can you please tell me what to make of this?” Mike asked, presenting Ben a heap of pastry and apples.

“A failed attempt to bake?” Ben returned the question, stealing a piece of crunchy pastry, before plopping it into his mouth. An uncomfortable feeling flared over his skin for a second, barely noticeable and Ben ignored it. He probably moved too much today.

“It does taste like your normal successful attempt.” Because Mike looked like a mess, Ben took the tart pan from his hands and placed it back onto the counter before steering Mike into his living room and onto the sofa there.

“You watch football, I make the pie, okay?” Ben kneeled in front of Mike who just nodded tiredly and reached for the remote.

“Why is today such a bad day?” he pouted, sounding actually quite sad. Shuffling closer, Ben placed a hand on Mike's knee, attempting to sooth him.

“Sometimes it just is. We all have them.” Suddenly, a thought jumped into his mind and he shoved his hoodie up on his left side, exposing so much color but also the small lettering there. Mike was confused for a moment, furrowing his brow.

“It says ‘rain is raining but the sun will be shining again’. I’ve got it when I was really young.” Ben said, showing it to him with a small smile. His friend knew about the many markings, but they never came too close to see such details. It wasn’t natural to show someone a mark that wasn’t theirs or theirs to love.

But in this moments, Mike was more important than the secrets his markings held.

Mike was speechless for a moment, reaching out to touch it with only his fingertips.

“Beautiful.” And in this moment the mishap in the kitchen was forgotten, the bad day was long lost in memories and suddenly, Mike ripped his hand back, pressing it to his own chest in wonder.

“What the fuck was that?” he whispered. And Ben knew it. Knew it by heart because he had to watch it so often happening on himself.

“You just fell in love.” He whispered and he could feel the tension between them growing.

Wonder, wonder and fear was the only thing written on Mike's face in that moment, eyes going wide as he scrambled to get his shirt off to stare at the flowers marking his skin next to his own mark, a beautiful green fern curling along his pecks and now along Ben's marking. It looked like it was holding it.

“That’s what it feels like? That what you feel all the time?” Mike breathed out, placing his hand over the marking, brushing along the outline.

“I don’t really feel it anymore.” Ben murmured, his heart in his throat. He never saw his own marking on someone else skin. It was glowing, standing stark against the skin underneath it.

His own hand wandered to his own chest, exposing even more of the markings on his body until the fern over his heart made him hold his breath.

“And I just fell in love.” He breathed out, eyes locking with Mike's and moments later, they were on the floor, Mike's lips on his in a heated kiss.

* * *

 

Fingers traced along the lines of the stag on Ben's stomach, following its crown to Ben's belly bottom were a streak of purple colored the skin there.

“Each and every single one of them had your heart at one point, right?” Mike asked, head resting on Ben's chest as he watched his finger move. Ben smiled, pressing a kiss to Mike's hair before laying his hand over Mike's, pressing them flat to his stomach.

“They had. You will have it for eternity.” Ben answered him, holding him closer.

“I hope there will never be another marking on your skin. Or on mine.” Mike whispered, pressing a kiss to his own marking on Ben's chest.

“There will never be another one.”

* * *

He lied. 5 years later a tiny flower bloomed on the inside of his hand and on the inside of Mike's as they held their daughter for the first time.

Years later and a green and blue fox came to live between their rips as their second child joined their family, screaming for the world to hear.

 

**Author's Note:**

> and like always  
> my darling beta [saskia](http://www.littlegrayfishes.tumblr.com)  
> [my blog](http://www.pastelandblood.tumblr.com)  
> and our benxmike [blog](http://www.benxmike.tumblr.com)  
>   
> 


End file.
